On Monday (Sept 28), the U.S. Department of Education announced that it was reinstating the Title IX rules written during the first Trump administration, which require schools to notify anyone accused of a policy violation of the allegations against them and set minimum wait times before hearings on harassment and assault. By Wednesday, the State Education Department's top lawyer was telling New York families that, inside this state's schools, almost nothing had moved. "This week's action doesn't really change anything," Daniel Morton-Bentley, counsel and deputy commissioner for the department, told Gothamist. "It's been widely known and understood due to litigation that the Biden administration's 2024 rule was not in effect."

The reason a federal reversal can land so quietly here is that New York writes its own rules for how schools handle bullying and harassment, and those rules come with deadlines that start running the moment an adult at school hears about a problem. Public schools answer to the Dignity for All Students Act, and since last fall private and religious schools answer to a parallel statute, the Jack Reid Law. October is National Bullying Prevention Month, which makes this a useful week to learn how both laws work before a family needs them.

Any school employee in New York who witnesses bullying or receives a report of it must tell the principal or head of school orally within one school day and in writing within two more. The school must investigate, act to stop the conduct and protect the student, and it may not retaliate against anyone who reported in good faith. If that fails, families have outside routes with fixed deadlines of 30 days, 180 days and three years.

What changed in Washington, and what did not

The federal policy shift hits hardest during sexual harassment hearings, where reinstated 2020 regulations re-impose strict notice requirements and waiting periods on schools and colleges. Advocates opposing the rollback were blunt about the fallout for students. "It creates less safe campuses," Shiwali Patel, senior director of education justice at the National Women's Law Center, told Chalkbeat. "It removes obligations for educational institutions to respond to sexual harassment."

Albany's message was that the floor under New York students sits higher than the federal one. "The federal administration's decision to go back on Title IX protections does not change New York's commitment to equal rights in education," Jonah Allon, a spokesperson for Gov. Kathy Hochul, told Gothamist. Morton-Bentley pointed to the state's lawmakers as the reason: "We have a Legislature that has consistently protected all students." Kei Williams, executive director of NEW Pride Agenda, described how the same news reads from a student's desk: "For a transgender student wondering whether a school will take harassment seriously, respect who they are or allow them to participate fully in school life, the message is far more personal."

The clock that starts when an adult hears about it

Public schools and the Dignity Act

The Dignity Act bars harassment, bullying and discrimination against students based on "race, color, weight, national origin, ethnic group, religion, religious practice, disability, sexual orientation, gender, or sex," according to Section 12 of the Education Law, and the definitions in Section 11 define gender to include "a person's gender identity or expression." The law also reaches conduct that does not fit any category on that list, because bullying is defined by its effect, including conduct that substantially interferes with a student's education or "mental, emotional or physical well-being," or that makes a student fear for their physical safety.

The operational heart of the statute is Section 13. A school employee who witnesses bullying, or who receives a report of it from a student or parent, must "promptly orally notify the principal" or the superintendent's designee "not later than one school day after," and must file a written report "not later than two school days after making such oral report." The principal or a designee must then "lead or supervise the thorough investigation of all reports," and when the investigation verifies the conduct, the school must take "prompt actions reasonably calculated to end the harassment, bullying or discrimination" and ensure the student's safety. The same section requires the school to "prohibit retaliation against any individual who, in good faith, reports, or assists in the investigation," and to notify local police promptly when the conduct appears to be criminal. Every school must also have at least one staff member thoroughly trained to handle these cases, a role most districts title the Dignity Act Coordinator.

Private and religious schools and the Jack Reid Law

Until last fall, the Dignity Act stopped at the public school door. Gov. Hochul's office said the gap left "approximately 420,000" students in nonpublic schools without equivalent protection when she signed the Jack Reid Law, named for a 17-year-old whose parents campaigned for it after his death in 2022. "Every student deserves to feel safe when they're learning, online with fellow students or enjoying school events off campus, no matter what school they're enrolled in," Hochul said.

The law took effect immediately, and Section 21 mirrors the public school clock: oral notice to the principal or head of school within one school day and a written report within two school days after that. It goes one step further on what families hear back. Each private school's policy must be "published on the school's website or internal parent/student portal and shared annually with employees, parents, and students," and it must include "an age-appropriate process for notifying the victim about the final outcome of the investigation." The Dignity Act text for public schools contains no equivalent requirement to tell the family the result, so public school parents should ask for one in writing rather than assume it.

How to make a report the school has to act on

Start by finding the policy, because the statutes require schools to put the reporting process in writing. Public districts must give parents a copy of their Dignity Act policies, usually inside the code of conduct posted on the district website, and private schools must post theirs on the website or parent portal. Note the name of your building's Dignity Act Coordinator, since that person is the trained staff member the law contemplates.

Put the report in an email addressed to the principal or head of school and copied to the coordinator, even if you have already raised it by phone or at pickup. List each incident with its date, place, the names of anyone involved and any adult or student who saw it, and attach screenshots for anything that happened online. Ask the school to confirm receipt and to tell you what interim steps it is taking to keep your child safe while the investigation runs, which can include schedule changes, supervision during transitions or a separate route through the building.

Then count school days. If you reported to a teacher on a Tuesday, the principal should have heard about it by Wednesday and had it in writing by Friday, and a follow-up email that cites the dates is a reasonable way to confirm the clock is running. Keep a running file of every reply, and document any change in how staff or classmates treat your child after the report, because the retaliation ban in both laws protects the student and the family who came forward. Our guide to what school anxiety looks like in children covers the stomachaches, sleep changes and withdrawal that often show up before a child is ready to describe what is happening.

Cyberbullying and conduct that happens off campus

Much of what parents see now happens on a phone at night, and the Dignity Act was written to reach it. Section 11 defines cyberbullying as the same harassing conduct carried out "through any form of electronic communication," and it covers conduct off school property that "creates or would foreseeably create a risk of substantial disruption within the school environment." A group chat that turns a hallway into a hostile place the next morning falls inside that language, which is why a screenshot with a timestamp is often the most useful piece of evidence a parent can bring. New York's bell-to-bell phone restrictions changed the school day, and our reporting on the first year of phone ban enforcement shows how districts have documented it, but the restrictions do not reach the evening hours when much of this conduct starts.

What the numbers show

State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli's February 2026 review of school safety data counted 29,718 bullying incidents in New York schools in 2023-24, 61.8 percent of all incidents schools reported that year, plus 4,396 incidents of cyberbullying. Among schools that reported any bullying, the report found the rate rose from 10.2 incidents per 1,000 students in 2017-18 to 18.2 in 2023-24, and statewide across all schools it was 12.4 per 1,000. The same report cautions that the comptroller's audits of school safety programs and of state data collection point to a risk that violent and disruptive incidents are underreported. "It's disturbing to see the rise in bullying and drug-related incidents," DiNapoli said when the report was released, adding that "this data shows there is more to do inside and outside our schools to meet these goals."

When the school's answer is not enough

A public school parent who disagrees with how the district handled a case can first take it to the superintendent and the board of education. After that, Education Law Section 310 allows an appeal to the Commissioner of Education, and under 8 NYCRR 275.16 it "must be instituted within 30 days from the making of the decision or the performance of the act complained of," so families should calendar that date the day a decision arrives.

Harassment tied to a protected characteristic can also go to the New York State Division of Human Rights. Executive Law Section 296 makes it unlawful for an educational institution "to permit the harassment of any student," and the definition of educational institution in Section 292 includes "any public school, including any school district, board of cooperative educational services," along with private schools that hold themselves out as non-sectarian. For incidents on or after February 15, 2024, families have three years to file, and the complaint process is free and needs no lawyer. Federal civil rights complaints go to the Office for Civil Rights, where, according to the department's own filing guidance, "a complaint must ordinarily be filed within 180 days of the last act of discrimination." Anything that involves threats, assault or sexual images of a minor belongs with local police as well, and the Dignity Act already requires the principal to make that call when the conduct appears criminal.

Unity Day, the signature event of Bullying Prevention Month, falls on Wednesday, Oct 21. The more durable step for a family is quieter: find the policy, learn the coordinator's name and keep the email that starts the one-school-day clock.